Flashback Friday: Rico's Worst PSG

Again, going through my tests has been amazing. I came by the test from this show  (so early in my blog that I just wrote about it with no pictures) where Rico and I were an absolute mess together. It was our last Prix St George and our lowest score at the level. 

One of my favorite pictures from one of our worst
shows at the FEI levels lol

 

Since the post is a miserable read due to no pictures, here are some choice quotes: 

Poor life choices were made yesterday when I insisted on hauling up to Starr Vaughn for our last show of the season when I was still getting over being sick. All week I've had what I thought was a bit of a cold but has ended up being a lot worse.

He was so tight in the mediums

Setting the stage. Basically I was sick the whole week leading up to a 2 day show in November of 2013. I'd planned on hauling in Friday and then showing Saturday and Sunday. I decided not to haul up until Saturday morning. Rico obviously had light work coming up to the show as I tried to get myself feeling good enough to ride. 

I woke up very sick again on Saturday but was adamant about just getting up there and then deciding what to do. Looking back on it, I should have just scratched and spent the weekend in bed (which is where I am right now and where I will be for the next 48 hours). But I didn't like the idea of not showing again until at least January or February (stupid) and I didn't like the idea of "wasting" all that money (stupid).

So off we went with me trying to nap in the truck but unable to because of the coughing fits. When we got to the barn, I set up Rico's stall and shoved him in there before sitting in line for 30 minutes (!!) to get my number. By the time I had it, I was so exhausted that I had to go lay down for a couple hours. I kept thinking man, if I had any other horse, I'd scratch, but Rico is so damn reliable.

Rico: having the best time
Megan: mildly panicking

Famous last words. Rico lost his SHIT in the warm up! I think he was mad about being shoved in a stall and ignored and he was also feeling really good (this was when I discovered that days off before a show = more energy for Rico). I ended up schooling all the Grand Prix canter work in warm up trying to chill him out while I was progressively getting sicker and sicker. 

He spooked at EVERYTHING on the way in, which I thought was fine because he's a silly horse and thinks that's fun. But then I got in there and he (yes he, I made few decisions in the first 8 minutes of the ride) picked up a trot. I say trot, but that's a loose term. He CHARGED around the arena in a big powerful medium trot squealing and shaking his head. I half halted and got a passage. Uhhhh. I kicked him out of it and got a threat to rear, then bronc bucks, then passage again. SHIT.

We proceeded like this for a while, I was just hoping he'd tire himself out but that wasn't happening. He felt like the kind of horse I'd consider taking into war. I tried a canter and holy shit that was a bad idea. He galloped sideways and when I stopped him, he threatened to rear, spooked at a dog, bronc bucked some more, passaged a bit, then cantered on the spot until I let him go forward into a working gallop again.

The only time the horse has ever dropped his back,
you do not want this horse to drop his back lol

I finally walked over to show. By walked over, I mean that the ring steward told me to get in the show ring, so I passaged my horse (who didn't have a passage) into the arena and picked up the canter, both of our eyes wide for different reasons. 

Into the show ring we went and at that point I was just hoping not to get bucked off. The first half of the test went surprisingly well and our scores reflected it. We got a handful of 7s and 7.5s on our trot work and even an 8 on our right walk pirouette! I was feeling really good by the time I shortened the reins after the extended walk and prepared for canter.

Note the tail in the first few strides of canter lol

And, well, here's the part of the test that went wrong: 

LOL I always tell my clients not to worry
if things go wrong in tests because it always
makes for a good story, this is a great one

Rereading this test and then rereading my blog post is EXACTLY why I have this blog. I laughed so much getting to this test and immediately looked up the post to relive it and it delivered. 

Our final score was a surprising 61% and change and I guess third place out of seven riders. The judge mostly had an issue with him kicking at my leg almost every time I used it and also I guess rearing in pirouettes isn't the best way to do them. I remember telling Tracey about the show and her telling me that she actually talked to the judge about my ride (they are friends, Tracey never coached me at shows, I don't like getting coaching at shows) and the judge remembered me and said that my horse was very naughty and kicked at me the whole time hahahaha

What a ridiculous creature

I now know that you can actually withdraw from tests if your horse is trying to murder you, and I've utilized that on a certain gray horse in a First level test that went similarly to this one. I mean, at least TC was eight at that time and not SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD. 

Still, any time Rico was naughty (it wasn't often), I was always happy about it. It's that cheekiness that got him to the Grand Prix at eighteen years old. And he's still cheeky to this day with our ponying adventures. He was definitely my horse of a lifetime in so many ways.